Ms Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba, the Minister of State-designate, Public-Sector Reforms, has called for a dialogue on the recruitment of individuals into the public sector.
The dialogue was necessary to prevent favouritism and political interferences in recruitment, which had resulted in the employment of unqualified persons, she said.
Ms Akanvariba made the call during her vetting by the Appointments Committee in Parliament, Accra, on Monday.
Her comments were in response to questions relating to the recent government directive on revocation of all appointments and recruitments into the public services after December 7, 2024.
Ms Akanvariba said that although she would not be happy to see people rendered ‘unemployed’ based on the revocation, she would not be sad if such employments were not gained through the right processes.
He said: “Let’s have a national dialogue on how we hire and recruit people into the public sector… Yes, I am a mother; a mother feels sad when her children have not eaten and are crying.”
Ms Akanvariba said: “There are people we have employed that are not supposed to be employed…If I was employed in a way that I was not supposed to, that amounts to corruption and unaccountability”.
Aside the proposal for a dialogue, the nominee said such recruitments and appointments could be avoided.
“If there were people with integrity and diligence in the public sector” recruitments would have been done on merit.
Ms Akanvariba said she would organise training to strengthen the public sector in order to streamline the way people are employed.
It would be recalled that Mr Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff, who issued the directives, on February 12, said the move was consistent with the government’s stance on near-end-of-tenure appointments and recruitments, deemed non-compliant with established good governance.
Meanwhile, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Minister of State in charge of Government Communications and spokesperson for President John Dramani Mahama, has justified the government’s decision to revoke post December 7 appointments, citing irregularities in the recruitment processes.
This was after Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, appealed to President Mahama to withdraw the revocation of appointments.
Addressing journalists in Accra on Wednesday, February 19, Kwakye Ofosu noted that “Let me also put it on record that this action has been taken not because of a perception or a belief that they were NPP. It is because we know that the recruitment processes were attended by irregularities.” —GNA
